Global Wanderer

23/1/23 – 26/1/23

Waking up at 3am either means that you’re having a bad night’s sleep, or you have an early morning flight to catch! Luckily for me, it was the latter, and after a quick drop-off at the airport, I was on my way to Vietnam. I won’t bore anyone with the details of the flights, but I arrived on-time at Noi Bai International Airport at 5:30pm. The first hiccup of the trip happened almost immediately after disembarking – the immigration officer who was inspecting my passport and visa decided that I looked nothing like my passport photo (which is true, as it is five years old). Amazingly enough, I happened to still have my driver’s licence in my wallet, which I took out and showed him, matching up the names and date of birth shown in my passport to those on my licence. Eventually, he relented, stamped my passport, and I finally officially entered Vietnam!

To get from the airport into the city centre, I had decided in advance to catch the number 86 bus. I had met an American backpacker on the plane, Keano, who coincidentally had an identical Osprey backpack to mine, and I convinced him to join me on the bus in lieu of getting a taxi, which meant that I had company for once! We got off in the north of the Old Quarter, and went our separate ways – him to the Central Backpacker’s, and myself to my hotel, the Bendecir Hotel. One thing I didn’t realise was how narrow the buildings are! My room at Bendecir was only slightly wider than the queen bed, however it was more than enough for myself, and still gave me enough room to move around. Once I had checked in and sorted myself out, I headed into the Old Quarter to find some food to eat, and to get my bearings. I acquired banh mi from a street vendor, following which I decided that it was time to head back to the accommodation and get some rest in anticipation for the busy schedule ahead.

Hoan Kiem lake lit up at night!

The next morning, I woke up early, ate breakfast on the roof of the building (what a view!), and headed out into Hanoi. My first aim for the day was to get to the Temple of Literature, a grouping of buildings and pagodas built around a patch of greenery, originally developed almost a thousand years ago to train the country’s brightest scholars, and to pay tribute to Confucius. Despite the fact that many things were closed (I had arrived the first day after Tet, so many shops and museums were shut whilst Vietnamese people flocked to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year with their families), the Temple of Literature was open and buzzing with mostly Vietnamese tourists. I spent a good two hours wandering around the grounds, and observing a procession take place whilst people prayed at the far temple. All in all, it was a rather fascinating experience to say the least!

Watching a ceremony take place at the Temple of Literature.

I then headed towards the Ho Chi Min Museum and Mausoleum. There was quite a long queue to get into the mausoleum, but it was moving relatively quickly, so I stood my ground and followed the mass of people. One important thing to note is that you are not able to bring any drinks, including bottled water, into the grounds with you. There are airport-style bag scanners, and the guards seemed pretty vigilant in regard to confiscating bottles. Once past the security, the procession of people continued in an orderly line towards the gigantic mausoleum building. The rules seemed quite strict – no cameras, no photos, and an unwritten rule of not speaking loudly. Military guards dressed almost entirely in white ensured that the procession of people made their way efficiently into the mausoleum, where we were then shepherded upstairs, and finally into the room containing the embalmed body of Uncle Ho. Uncle Ho was, as you’d imagine, rather pale, and was guarded by a group of 4 military guards. The mausoleum, and Uncle Ho’s resting place, were like something out of a Communist dream, with large hammers and sickles adorning the building, and flying on flagpoles above the site. Once we had witnessed Uncle Ho in all his pasty glory, the procession was again shepherded down the stairs and out of the opposite side of the mausoleum.

The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, with Vietnamese flags in the foreground, and hammer and sickle flags in the background.

Following this rather fascinating exercise in Communist revolutionary deification, I headed to a local cafe to get some Vietnamese coffee (black coffee with condensed milk – if you like condensed milk, then you will adore this!). Whilst I was there, I chatted with the owner about business following Covid-19 – it was picking up but was nowhere close to previous levels – and made a new friend, who had quite a fabulous haircut!

My new Furry Friend.

I took a rather circuitous route on my way back to my accommodation, in order to get better acquainted with this part of Hanoi. I began to count up the number of embassies I found, most of which were located in old, colonial buildings, and then whiled away the afternoon strolling through the beautiful Old Quarter of Hanoi.

I made my way north of Hoan Kiem lake to find a banh mi shop that had come highly recommended to me – Banh Mi 25. Located a little bit away from the hubbub of the lake, the banh mi I ate here was absolutely fantastic, and really hit the spot. However by this point, my knee, had decided that now would be a good time to shout at me, and I reluctantly headed back to my accommodation to rest.

Spotted on my walk to Hoa Lo – the hammer and sickle flying over a luxury goods store!

The following morning, after acquiring some local coffee, I set out on a walk towards Hoa Lo prison, known to American POWs as the Hanoi Hilton, and notable for being the place where the late Senator John McCain was imprisoned following his capture during the Vietnam War. Hoa Lo was certainly an interesting experience – whilst the exhibits were clearly written by the Propaganda Department (not a joke, there was an actual sign which said ‘these exhibits have been developed by the Propaganda Department), they were quite neutral in regard to their description of the Americans who bombed Hanoi – particularly those like McCain who were captured and then returned in later years.

Hoa Lo Prison – Maison Centrale.

Once I had finished up at Hoa Lo, I decided to walk around Hanoi to try and find some interesting sights. First up was the iconic train street, where a train track runs right through a narrow pedestrian street – luckily there was no train coming when I took the photo! Apparently there are a few other streets like this one in South-East Asia, including in Thailand, but it seems that the one in Hanoi is the most well-known. Whilst it was closed during the pandemic, the train street’s cafes and shops seemed to have opened back up, particularly further up the line.

Hanoi’s iconic train street.

One of my favourite parts about random destination-less walking in a new city is when you stumble across something random that you didn’t know was there. This happened to me, when I turned a corner and found myself at the front of a large park, which was built around a giant statue of Vladimir Lenin! I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to take a photo of an actual statue of Lenin – most of the ones in the former Soviet Union have been taken down or relocated.

By this point, my aimless wandering was feeling a little boring, and I decided to give myself the task of finding the small lake in which the remains of a downed B-52 bomber from the Vietnam War lay. Apparently, according to other travellers, it was quite difficult to find, as you had to wander through a maze of residential streets. Thank god I decided to do it, because otherwise I would not have had one of my favourite experiences whilst travelling. Whilst I was walked down a very narrow street, I heard the familiar theme tune of Peppa Pig. I stopped to see where the noise was coming from, and saw a woman and her son sat in their front room watching the TV. The woman turned around, spotted me, and immediately called over and gestured for me to come in. She spoke no English, but I understood that she was offering for me to sit down and eat with them. Completely exhausted from the day’s walking, and grateful for the hospitality, I drank Vietnamese coffee, ate a small mountain of fresh fruit, and tried as best I could to make conversation. Once I had eaten my fill of fruit and finished my coffee, I thanked her profusely and left, in awe at the hospitality I was shown. I often read about experiences like this in other blogs and diaries, but it was really awesome to be the person getting to experience something special like this. Oh and, I got to watch Vietnamese-dubbed Peppa Pig – now that really WAS a wild ride!

I felt so lucky to have one of these cool experiences!

Finally, I came to the rather dreary lake in which the downed bomber lay. It was honestly quite underwhelming until I stopped and actually thought about the history of the war, and the fact that remnants like this aren’t in museums or galleries but are literally still in the streets, like a reminder of what happened. Once I had taken a few photos, I decided that it was probably time to head back to Hoan Kiem.

The downed bomber at its final resting place.

Given it was my last night in Hanoi, I set out to complete the last two items on the crazy bucket list I had written. The first was to find the most unidentifiable street food and eat it to work out what it was. This actually turned out quite well – a woman was selling sticks of something deep fried from a cart on the edge of the lake, and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to tick that off. So in the spirit of adventure, I bought one of the sticks, and bit into it. Imagine the grin on my face when I realised that I was biting into a roll of DEEP FRIED MELTED CHEESE! Served with a spicy sauce, in the bottom of a plastic drinks cup, and with a lime juice on hand to wash it down, I felt like I had won the street food lottery. The final item on the list was to find and eat a local dessert. So I headed up to Che 93, a well known hole-in-the-wall that serves some of the best desserts in Hanoi, and treated myself to coconut ice-cream and sticky rice. How about that to cap off a wonderful few days in Hanoi!

My streetfood extravaganza.